This invention relates in general to athletic running and playing surfaces.
Athletic running and playing surfaces have long been known in the art. Because the conventional athletic flooring surfaces are often installed outdoors, they are exposed to the natural elements, including rain. Accordingly, adequate drainage of water off of the surface is important.
Conventional resilient running tracks (such as shown in FIG. 1) have edges that have butt joints (or straight edges), and when the tracks are laid down, a series of tracks are abutted together to form a continuous surface. Adhesives of known kinds typically used to bind resilient materials have been contemplated to assist in securing the straight edges together. However, the use of adhesive has not proved satisfactory since, among other things, a portion of the adhesive tends to squeeze out of the seam and onto the exposed surfaces of the running track.
Additionally, since the conventional running tracks have straight edges, problems have occurred as a result of water seeping between the edges and ultimately under and below the bottom surfaces of the running track. Such water seepage then results in a buckling, or splitting apart of the butted joints of adjacent sections of the running track.
Moreover, such conventional synthetic running tracks are constructed with a top surface having a plurality of generally parallel grooves extending in a relatively longitudinal direction (the direction in which a user of such a surface would normally be running). These grooves serve a dual purpose; to help reduce slippage while running thereon, and, to add some resiliency to the top surface. Unfortunately, since most running tracks are installed to have a slight slope extending side-to-side (transversely), and because such synthetic running tracks are substantially impervious to water, the longitudinal grooves actually maintain water between them when, for example, it has rained, or after cleaning (rinsing off). This “trapped” water then dissipates only after an evaporation process has occurred.
To overcome the above-identified drawbacks, an object of the present invention is to provide an athletic flooring surface having a plurality of substantially parallel grooves configured in a transverse direction (as opposed to a longitudinal direction) of play. Such transverse grooves take advantage of the installed slope of the running track to facilitate drainage of water off of the entire running surface of the track.
Another object of the invention is to avoid splitting, or buckling of adjacent track sections by fabricating the track sections so that they have an overlapping configuration where they are joined together. In addition, because of such a configuration, adhesive can effectively be used between the joints without oozing of adhesive to the top surface, thereby maintaining a solid attachment therebetween.
Additional objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from an examination of the drawings and the ensuing description.